


Right

by thealphagate_archivist



Category: Stargate SG-1
Genre: First Time, Friendship, Humor, M/M, Romance
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2006-04-09
Updated: 2006-04-09
Packaged: 2019-02-02 08:42:47
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,481
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12723300
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/thealphagate_archivist/pseuds/thealphagate_archivist
Summary: A story of post-ascension misunderstandings. Daniel is right, Jack's confused, and Sam's just glad things are back to normal.





	Right

**Author's Note:**

> Note from the archivists: this story was originally archived at [The Alpha Gate](https://fanlore.org/wiki/The_Alpha_Gate), a Stargate SG-1 archive, which began migration to the AO3 in 2017 when its hosting software, eFiction, was no longer receiving support. To preserve the archive, we began manually importing its works to the AO3 as an Open Doors-approved project in November 2017. We e-mailed all creators about the move and posted announcements, but may not have reached everyone. If you are this creator and it hasn't transferred to your AO3 account, please contact us using the e-mail address on [The Alpha Gate collection profile](https://archiveofourown.org/collections/thealphagate).

  
Author's notes: Many thanks to Damia Masters for a great Beta.  
Set at the beginning of Season 7, some spoilers for 'Meridian', and Season 6.  


* * *

Jack watched Daniel look up as he walked through the door.

"Daniel?" He asked in response to Daniel’s furtive look. 

"Nothing. I was just looking at…" He trailed off and held up a flat round object. Jack looked at it for a while and then gave up.

"Ashtray?" 

"No it’s…" Daniels forehead furrowed as the tried to catch the memory, before he smiled wryly, placing the object back into the box.

"I remember it’s not a platter or whetstone… or an ashtray." His smile faded, his mouth twisting in frustration. Jack cast his eyes around the apartment, filled with the familiar boxes from his basement. What, for the last year, had been the only material remains of one Dr. Daniel Jackson. He looked back up to the man himself.

"Paperweight." He suggested, and Daniel’s lips quirked in a token smile. 

Jack continued to bring the boxes up into the apartment, pausing each time to watch Daniel potter around – supposedly unpacking but more obviously fretting.

"For crying out loud, Daniel, just say it. Whatever’s banging around your newly descended brain just let it out, because it’s starting to give me a headache," Jack griped. Daniel stopped fraying the cardboard flap in his hand and began to speak quickly

"This is going to be totally out of the blue, but I just didn’t want there to be this ‘unacknowledged thing’ between us anymore. I had a lot of time to think about it when I was," he indicated the roof and made swirly motions with his fingers, "and I began to realise just how important you were to me. But then I’m doing it again, because I’m saying ‘important’ and what I really mean is that I love you." There was a short pause where his words sat like a pink elephant next to the box on the coffee table.

"Right." Jack said. Daniel raised his eyebrows and repeated

" ‘Right?’ " Jack shrugged and went on with mock solemnity

"I love you too. Now let us never speak of it again." 

"Oh" Daniel grinned "I’m glad we’ve got that sorted out." Jack patted his arm reassuringly and wondered silently how long the weirdness was going to keep up. Ah – who was he kidding, Daniel had always been weird. Deciding now would be a good time for friendly sarcasm he replied

"Yeah, me too, the whole ‘unacknowledged thing’ was keeping me awake at – "

And that was when Daniel put one hand on either side of his head and kissed him.

He wrested his mouth away from Daniel’s and tried to catch his breath.

" – night" he finished.

Daniel for his part seemed relatively calm, if not a little perplexed.

"Jack. What’s wrong?" He asked, tilting his head to one side and looking at him curiously.

"You kissed me." Jack stated, eyes wide.

"Yes. And…" Daniel squinted at him as if he were some alien script that looked annoyingly familiar yet remained unintelligible. 

"You’re still suffering from memory loss. Y’see, we can’t do this. There are sooo many reasons why we can’t do this." Jack belatedly pried himself away from Daniel and gestured wildly in the hope of indicated the sheer magnitude of said reasons. Daniel pursed his lips and replied

"I remember the reasons." His brows drew together and he continued "I mean, I don’t remember the exact reasons but I remember there being reasons."

"Well..." Jack stepped back, smoothing out the creases in his t-shirt before adding "there we go." Daniel started and seemed to realise Jack thought the conversation was over. Stepping forward and shaking his head, he continued,

"Oh, no, I remember there being reasons but I also remember they weren’t very compelling. And that they weren’t what stopped me before. The only thing that stopped me declaring my love in some incredibly corny way was the knowledge you’d freak out and it would end badly." said Daniel, as if that explained it all.

"Why isn’t it stopping you now?" Jack asked almost plaintively, while trying to evade Daniel’s attempts to get back into his personal space.

"Ascending to a higher plane of existence gives you a slightly different perspective, Jack, I –"

" ‘The aliens made me gay’? Do you have any idea how lame that sounds?" he interrupted, shooting for angry and achieving snippy. 

Daniel sighed, and then couldn’t resist a small smile. 

"What?" Jack asked, eyes narrowed.

"I’m not explaining this very well, am I?" Daniel replied with a laugh. Sensing his friend’s frustration, and feeling his own panic subside now that Daniel remained stationary and on the other side of some boxes, Jack quipped

"Maybe you could draw me a diagram." Daniel frowned and said

"I don’t remember; did that technique work in the past?" Sensing that the issue was – at least for the moment – averted, Jack clasped his shoulder and replied 

"Less talking, more unpacking. After we’ve got all the boxes up I’ll call for pizza and we can watch the game." Daniel moved to comply but paused to wade through the confusing mire of his memories.

"I hate football." 

"You love it!" Jack countered quickly, before blithely yelling "You sure you’re feeling okay?" from halfway down the corridor. 

He smiled reflexively before picking up the not-an-ashtray again and willing himself to remember how it worked.

~*~

Jack sat at the Monday morning briefing staring across the table at Daniel. Why’d the man have to go and do something like that – something so damn confusing. Who was he kidding? This was Dr. rock-the-boat upset-the-apple-cart I-love-you-that-way Jackson. Yeesh. Of all the people he could’ve fallen for…casting his eye around the briefing table it settled on his 2IC. Goddamit even Carter would’ve been better, though she would have called him ‘sir’ in bed.

Sighing, he ran a hand over his face, ignoring the pointed looks he got from around the table. Including one from Daniel, who he thought should have had his ‘pointed look’ privileges revoked by virtue of starting this whole mess.

‘This whole mess’ was that Jack was straight. In fact, he’d been very straight for a very long time and considered himself to be very good at it. More than that, though, he was in the air force and straight, which was like straightness squared. He snorted at the idea of Carter trying to work out a mathematical formula to determine sexual orientation. He could imagine her in front of her blackboard pointing to some sprawling equation. 

"Well sir, with ‘x’ being your taste in music, ‘y’ being your choice of mannerisms, and ‘z’ indicating your level of repressed desire for Daniel, then I’d estimate…" He squished his internal Carter before she could deliver the verdict. 

Okay, so maybe ‘straight’ wasn’t exactly the right term for the situation. Sighing again, he realised that the briefing was over, and that the assembled people were looking at him strangely.

"Son, are you feeling alright?" Asked Hammond.

"Peachy." He replied succinctly before adding "Sir" on the way out of the room. 

Daniel caught up to him at the end of the corridor

"Where are you going Jack?" He asked, a little breathless from his impromptu sprint.

"That way." Jack replied, realising that he didn’t know but pointing ahead anyway.

"The gear up rooms this way." Daniel pointed out. Jack replied belligerently

"So?" Daniel licked his lips and replied

"So Hammond gave us a go. We’re heading off in 15 minutes." 

"Right." Jack said, and instantly regretted his choice of words. Daniel smiled.

"Just testing to see if your memory’s coming back." Jack added. 

"Right." Daniel replied, and it sounded like ‘I love you’. Jack swallowed and began to head back towards their lockers. 

~*~

Sam was glad to be back on Earth, after three days of – how had the Colonel phrased it – "rain, trees, more damn rain, and then some mud". She’d dutifully taken soil samples, and helped Daniel investigate an unpromising mound of earth which he said may be an artificial till or barrow. And now she was going home for a hot date with a tub of Ben and Jerry’s and some MacGyver DVDs. On her way past the archaeologist’s office she saw his light was still on and smiled, glad for something about him to be normal and real again. Knocking lightly, she pushed open the door. He remained bowed over his desk intently, offering only a "mmm?" to acknowledge her presence. 

"Still working on your report?" She asked, and he looked up startled.

"Sam. Umm, no." He looked down at the papers spread across his desk and part of his floor. Intrigued she stepped forward.

Suppressing a smile at his expression of concentration she said quietly

"May I ask what you are working on?" He’d gone back to peering intently at the page in front of him while she spoke.

"Daniel?"

"Hmm? Oh. I tried to explain the effect of ascension and descension on personal relationships, and Jack said it might help if I did a diagram." He indicated the paper all around him and shrugged helplessly. Sam didn’t know whether to laugh or absolutely despair at the communication skills or the entire male gender.

"As a formerly enlightened being, Daniel, I’m sure you’ll work it out." He looked up and gave her a shy smile,

"I hope so." She smiled back and walked back out towards the elevator, shaking her head.

~*~

Jack hovered outside the door to Teal’c’s quarters. He grimaced and scratched his neck. He wasn’t the kind of guy who talked things over with other people – not ‘feelings’ kind of things, anyway – and now when he really needed a second opinion he didn’t even know which of his friends was a ‘talking about things’ kind of guy. Apart from Daniel. Damn. 

He raised his hand to the doorknob, only to feel it turn beneath his touch. Suddenly eye to eye with the large Jaffa he smiled jauntily.

"T. I just thought I’d drop by and have a little chat."

"Ah. That is why you have been outside my quarters for the previous twelve minutes." Jack shot him a glare, just to know that this was not the time for humour, however subtle. Teal’c stepped back to admit him, and as he walked forward he noticed the low lighting and burning candles.

"Kel’no’reeming, huh?" 

"Indeed." He shut the door. "What matter did you wish to discuss?" 

"Matter? Who said there was a matter?" Jack replied glibly, before catching Teal’c’s incredulous look and sighing. He shuffled around and scuffed his shoes before beginning

"It’s about Daniel." Teal’c’s expression remained the same. 

"He…well…he went and changed everything around." Jack checked quickly to see if Teal’c’s expression had changed. Nothing, nada, zip.

"He’s different." He stated finally, and defensively.

Teal’c nodded sagely. "DanielJackson has returned both wiser as to that which must be done and more uncertain of how to do it." 

"Thanks, Teal’c. That really…clears up the confusion."

"I did not realise you required confusion to be cleared in regards to DanielJackson." Jack was graced with a stony look, complete with gravely raised eyebrows. It was the look that indicated Teal’c knew he was being a total coward, and was deeply unimpressed. Jack sighed heavily.

"Right." He said, before stepping towards the door and exiting with a wave to his now-amused team mate.

At the elevator he ran into Daniel. Once they’d untangled themselves, Jack risked glancing at Daniel’s face, only to see he was about to speak. Stepping back from Daniel’s outstretched hand he hit the ‘up’ button meaningfully and said quickly, 

"Sorry Daniel, can’t talk, have to think." Daniel held out his hand again, open this time to reveal a folded piece of paper, which he pressed into Jack’s hand. Taking it, Jack stepped through the opening doors and slammed the ‘door close’ button before they’d even fully finished the exchange. Sending a quick wave to the confused archaeologist he let the car take him to the surface and the cool night air. 

~*~

He got a beer and sat down on the couch. He let his head tip back, and pulled the piece of paper out of his jacket. He took another swig and opened it up, almost spitting the beer out again. Daniel had actually drawn a diagram. In this middle were there names in a circle. Written all around were planet designations that seemed vaguely familiar, and not in a happy way. One sprung out at him in particular – P3R-636 where that witch had got Daniel addicted to the sarcophagus. Intermixed were the names of their friends and colleagues, old flames. Right at the bottom was the small instruction: PTO. He hesitated, and then turned it over slowly, smoothing out the creases. On the back it simply said ‘And I still love you’, in Daniel’s academic spider scrawl. It made perfect sense.

He sat back, and blew out a breath. "Whaddaya know? It actually works." 

Jack was trying to find his car keys when there was an urgent nock at the door. He grimaced, and made his efforts quieter so he could ignore whoever it was and sneak out the back, when he heard Daniel yell

"Jack? I know you’re in there." Instantly, he gave up the search and all but wrenched the front door open. They looked at one another warily before Jack said

"Come on in," with painfully feigned nonchalance, and Daniel did. 

As soon as he shut the door, Daniel pulled his hands out of his pockets and began, arms waving with impassioned vehemence,

"I’m sorry if all this comes as a bit of a surprise, Jack, but it really shouldn’t. I care about you and part of that is wanting you to be happy even when you’re being a stubborn ass and don’t necessarily deserve it. And before you say it," he rushed on, heedless of Jack’s slack jaw, "I don’t know that being with me would make you happy, but I can make an educated guess based on the fact that you were miserable without me. When I was ascended I could see you down here, Jack, so don’t even try to deny it. I know sometimes I’ll drive you nuts but I already do that, so I don’t think that can be a deciding factor. Not that there’s any decision to be made, though, because damn it Jack, I love you, and I know you love me."

"Right" Jack said, leaping into the pause in Daniel’s tirade.

"You agree?" Daniel said in surprise, as Jack leaned forward

"Yeahsureyoubetcha." He whispered against Daniel’s lips. Daniel pulled back slightly, his cool assurance gone, replaced with tentative hope.

"Really?" Jack grinned and closed the gap again. When they finally broke apart for air, he snickered,

"What can I say; when you’re right, you’re right."


End file.
